US announces targeted visa restrictions for some Ethiopians

WASHINGTON, June 18 - The U.S. State Department announced visa restrictions targeting people it said were undermining peace in Ethiopia on Thursday, focused on hardliners in the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and their immediate family members.

"Rising tensions between Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) hardliners and the Ethiopian government have threatened to reignite the conflict in northern Ethiopia and undermine peace and security across the entire region," the State Department said in a statement.

The State Department cited clashes between TPLF forces and Ethiopian government forces earlier this year.

"This visa restriction policy targets individuals who are responsible for, or complicit in, undermining resolution to the crisis in the Tigray region," it said.

Tigray's main political party reasserted control over the northern Ethiopian region's political administration in May, following through on a threat to violate a key provision of the deal that ended a civil war with the federal government.

The TPLF said it had restored the legislative council that existed before the 2020-2022 civil war and that the council had elected TPLF chair Debretsion Gebremichael as regional president.

The conflict in Tigray, which drew in forces from neighbouring Eritrea, was one of the century's deadliest, killing hundreds of thousands of people through direct violence, the collapse of healthcare and famine, according to researchers. REUTERS